Hi All, my 2008 10k miles S2R Thou has developed an intermittent fault. Around 50% of the time the engine will turn over fine, but it will not "catch" The rest of the time it fires up fine and settles to a good steady idle. I replaced the battery & reg/rec after the first couple of times this happened, and checked the earth to the frame. This afternoon I went out for a blast with stops for fuel ( high octane) and cake and coffee at Squires - all good. This evening I changed the oil & filter, and the bike started great. Stopped to check oil level, and now turns over fine, but again wont "catch" Any ideas dudes and dudettes ??
Hi Dave, could you add some detail please? - does it churn ok at a good speed? do you mean it repeatedly coughs but won't break into an idle? (as you say, won't catch). If this is the case and bike is otherwise in a good mechanical state, then a general tune ought to do it - e,g, checking throttle body balance, air bleeds, throttle position sensor check/reset. Have you got a stepper motor on this one?
Cheers Chris, It does spin at a decent speed, coughs like it is trying to start but just wont fire. The bike is generally well sorted, valve clearances recently checked along with throttle bodies balanced. I bet it has'nt had the TPS checked for yonks, but not a job for an amateur I guess, and I wont be able to go to Ducati John in Wakefield for a while yet ! Could you expand - what do you mean by air bleeds ?? Not sure if I have a stepper motor or not, the throttle cable are directly connected to the throttle bodies. It started first thing this morning - many thanks for your input !!
Hi Dave I bet you’ll remember on an older car or motorbike, where you had a screw on the side of a carburettor body that was purely to open the throttle butterfly a tiny amount to alter the tick over speed? Well the two bleeds are effectively a replacement for this, and both butterflies in theory could be completely shut although it’s not quite as simple as this as I’m sure you can imagine. The stepper motor initially was there to replace a choke and of course, can also play up. Best check if you have one first, but there are checks you can do.
Forgot to add: – I’m not sure if you’ve tried it, perhaps you have but when it’s trying to catch you can try very gingerly opening the throttle the tiniest amount while cranking and if this works then it could help to confirm that a basic tuneup is all that’s needed.
Hi Chris, I took the air filter out and I'm sure that I can hear both butterflies seating when the throttle is released, and she did start fine with a cracked throttle. I checked my log book and the plugs are about ready for a change so we'll see if that helps. I'll take her, and the Guzzi Le Mans, out for a belt round tomorrow- might be the last joy rides for a while !! Stay Safe y'all !
Hi Dave There is lots to read on air bleeds on here and various Forums, you can get an idea from this as a generalisation:- https://www.ducati.ms/threads/basic-tb-air-bleed-screw-question.635730/ If yours is a 1000S2R then apparently it does have a stepper motor, and it looks as though the 800 didn't. P.S. you can treat anything that Brad Black says as Gospel afaic.
Thanks for the info Chris, much appreciated - however :- Went for a runround prior to lockdown and after 10 mins she cut out on me completely - just died in an instant, but restarted straight away. Headed back home but she cut out again at around 60mph, two miles from home. She, as before , turned over fine but would not fire, I would have pushed the begger home if there had'nt been a bridge/hill in the way. Anyway I will go through her starting from first principles, are there sparks - is there any fuel getting through etc and will keep you posted
Sorry to hear Dave, with winter coming, and possibly opening a separate can of worms, how old is battery? have you added thicker starter cables yet?
Battery & reg/rec are brand new, and battery earth cable bolted to frame nice & clean. Gen seems to put out 14.5 volts when running, but will check all connectors over the next month !! New cables will be ordered soon.
Hi Have you checked the spark plugs ? they can build up carbon deposits that cause misfires. electrics on ducati's can be a nightmare at times best to check the cheap and easy stuff first.
Anyone bought one of these ?? Are they straight forward to use ?? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DUCATI-D...ERMOTARD-SUPERBIKE-STREETFIGHTER/282142317799 New plugs also fitted, but the old ones were perfect !!
Do you still have original cables fitted from battery to solenoid to starter motor? Also have you cleaned your earth cable terminals recently? The original fitment was pretty marginal, and twelve years won’t have improved them. If it’s taking all the available power to spin the engine, it doesn’t leave much to create a good fat spark.
Cheers EoT - all terminals nice and clean and I'll get a set of cables soon. She turns over fine, just wont catch and then she cut out at 70 on the motorway. Have you used the diagnostic tool as mentioned above at all ??
u dont need to pay that much https://www.von-der-salierburg.de/download/GuzziDiag/ https://www.lonelec.co.uk/
Many thanks for the info funkatronic, do I need to download all the different ( Windows in my case ) programmes ??
you just need IAWdiag for the diagnostics the only other ones you might need are iawreader- makes a copy of your ECU IAWwriter - allows you to write files your backup (and other maps) back to the ECU
We are getting closer, but no cigar just yet ! The Lonelec lead arrived in double quick time and looks great quality. I think that I loaded the lead's drivers OK because I see USB Serial Port Com 3 on my device manager. Not sure which port is number 3 but I tried them all. I have downloaded IAWDiag as instructed and it's time to try things out - the bike started first time ! Unfortunately there are no readings on IAWDiag blue screen. I can see boxes for Throttle, Eng Temp etc on the measurements screen and nothing either on View tab but no data shows. There is no info on the View screen and the Fault, Actors and CO trim options are greyed out ! Any ideas Guys ?
